On July 25, in Kyzyl, will be the official opening of the Fifth International Symposium "Khoomei: Cultural Phenomenon of the Peoples of Central Asia". This is the key event of the Year of Khoomei in Tuva. The most intriguing part of the program of the symposium is the throat singers' competition. Together with Tuvan performers there will be throat singing participants from Mongolia, Bashkortostan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Altay, Khakassia, Buryatia, Kalmykia, Yakutia, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Japan, America, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and Denmark.

The ongoing rains helped putting down a greater part of 11 forest fires that have raged in Russia’s Republic of Tuva from the beginning of the Russian holidays. Three fires are still burning in the republic, one of them has already been localized. If the fire area totalled more than 5,000 hectares two days ago, it has shrunk to 2.6 thousand hectares by Friday morning.

St. Petersburg placed 85th out of the country’s 89 regions in a newly released rating by the Russian Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency. To award a position in the rating, the experts assessed a range of factors affecting the state of the environment, including air and water pollution, changing ecosystems, the production and treatment of industrial waste, environmental protection efforts, accountability by local business communities and the endangered status and extinction of animal species.

OPK Mining, a Russian coking coal producer, plans to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering next year to develop its mines in Siberia. A stake of at least 25 percent may be sold in Hong Kong or London, Dmitry Sakhno, chief executive officer of OPK's Eniseiskaya Industrial Co. unit, said today in an interview at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia. OPK is also considering selling the stake to a single investor, he said.